RICHARD RODGERS
Pulitzer prize winning composer.
Richard Rodgers was a prolific composer for musical theatre writing almost 1,000 songs for over 40 well-known Broadway musicals. A winner of many awards, Rodgers was the first person to win an EGOT (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) and he also won the Pulitzer Prize - Marvin Hamlisch is the only other person to have won this set of awards.
Best known for his collaborations with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, the New Yorker also wrote songs for film and television. Rodgers and Hammerstein's compositions have won 35 Tonys, 15 Oscars, 2 Pulitzers, 2 Grammys and 2 Emmys to date.
In his later life, Rodgers survived a heart attack and cancer of the jaw before dying in 1979. The 46th Street Theatre was renamed in his honour in 1990 and in 1999 he was commemorated, along with Hart, on US postage stamps.
On the occasion of President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle visiting Queen Elizabeth II in 2009, the visitors presented the monarch with an iPod and a songbook signed by Richard Rodgers.
Compositions
Rodgers' most well known compositions with Hammerstein as lyricist.
Oklahoma! (1943)
Carousel (1945)
State Fair (1945)
South Pacific (1949)
The King and I (1951)
Cinderella (1957)
Flower Drum Song (1958)
The Sound of Music (1959)
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR
RICHARD RODGERS THEATER?
Richard Rodgers Theater
New York City
The 226 West 46th Street Theatre was renamed the Richard Rodgers Theater in Richard Rodgers' honour in 1990.
Currently showing Porgy and Bess; George and Ira's Gershwin's ground-breaking work, reimagined by director Diane Paulus, musician Dierdre Murray and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, stars Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier.
